Commission will look at land use-zoning incompatibility for Crescent Technical Court

Stuart Korfhage

Tuesday

Oct 2, 2018 at 6:10 AMOct 2, 2018 at 6:10 AM

A collision between established business uses and current land use and zoning designations is among the items the St. Johns County Commission will handle at today's regular meeting.

The Commission will hear a proposal for a Comprehensive Plan Amendment to amend the Future Land Use Map (FLUM) designation from Residential-B to Mixed Use District for approximately 38 acres along Crescent Technical Court off of Watson Road.

Right now the current zoning is Industrial Warehouse, with a FLUM designation of Residential-B, so there is almost no commercial use available to property owners at Crescent Technical Court that fits between the two classifications. The zoning and land use designations are basically incompatible.

There are approximately 17 parcels and an estimated 13 developed businesses within the property and cumulatively about 69,000 square feet of buildings and approximately 19 acres of vacant land. Future development in the categories provided under IW zoning cannot be approved unless a Comprehensive Plan amendment is adopted that is consistent with the zoned uses.

That is frustrating current owners who want to improve their property for further commercial development. They say they should not be limited since the land had light industrial use prior to the creation of the Comprehensive Plan in 1990.

But as the county agenda documents state: "All future development must be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan."

So the county initiated the proposal for a change to the FLUM to Mixed Use because in addition to the commercial activity, the area near Crescent Technical Court is growing with residential development.

"The Mixed Use District would provide for a broader allowance of uses in order to promote development consistent with the IW zoning district," county agenda documents say.

This item has already gone through the Commission when it unanimously approved transmittal to the state for the first step in the process. Today's action will be the decisive one.

Despite the strong support from the Commission, the issue has been controversial. The county Planning and Zoning Agency (PZA), which makes non-binding recommendations to the Commission, voted unanimously against the Comprehensive Plan amendment during the transmittal hearing and again at the Sept. 6 meeting.

During the most recent meeting, both residents and PZA members expressed their concerns about allowing more commercial projects that could allow an estimated 706 afternoon peak-hour vehicle trips on Watson Road (at maximum buildout).

PZA member Jon Woodard talked a lot about the concerns with the intersection of Watson Road and U.S. 1.

"I’m just curious why the staff is recommending approval on this when we’re talking about 706 p.m. peak-hour trips added to a road, which in a previous application we noted that there’s been two deaths in the intersection, 40-something seriously injured," Woodard said during the meeting. "I personally see this on a daily basis. I find it very disturbing that we seem to kind of be focusing on the small picture of this one area and not looking at the big picture of the impacts on it.

"And I don’t know how we can look past people dying at an intersection that are now going to have this approved in the evening 700 additional trips."

Fellow PZA member Jeff Martin said that until the intersection is improved, there shouldn't be a rush to make approval of new projects so important.

"It needs to go hand in hand with improvements to the road," he said. "We need to prioritize fixing that."

But Vernon Keith, who owns property in Crescent Technical Court for his company, Construction Debris Removal Inc., said without the Comprehensive Plan amendment, business and property owners like himself can't expand or sell.

"I cannot improve my property," he said at the June 5 Commission meeting. "It's going to devalue my property."

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